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Disinformation, Euroskepticism and Pro-Russian Parties in Eastern Europe

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Disinformation, Euroskepticism and Pro-Russian Parties in Eastern Europe disinformation, Euroskepticism and pro-Russian Parties in Eastern Europe Maria Snegovaya Disinformation, Euroskepticism and pro-Russian Parties in Eastern Europe 1 Disinformation, Euroskepticism and pro-Russian Parties in Eastern Europe FREE RUSSIA FOUNDATION 20 21 Free Russia Foundation Author Maria Snegovaya Editor-in-Chief Anton Shekhovtsov Proofreading Courtney Dobson, Bluebearediting Layout Free Russia Designs CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 6 ANTI-EU SENTIMENT AS RUSSIA’S 7 GEOPOLITICAL TOOL CLASSIFYING PRO-RUSSIAN PARTIES 8 VULNERABLE GROUPS AND HYPOTHESIS 11 RESEARCH DESIGN 13 FINDINGS 15 CONCLUSION 19 REFERENCES 20 ABOUT AUTHOR Maria Snegovaya Postdoctoral Fellow at Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University), Visiting Fellow at George Washington Uni- versity ABSTRACT What social groups support pro-Russian parties in Eastern Europe? This paper demonstrates that pro-Russian parties in Eastern Europe tend to have electorates with significantly more Euroskeptic attitudes than voter bases of mainstream parties. Importantly, support for pro-Russian parties is not related to an individual’s ideological (right or left) leanings. Because of their Euroskeptic attitudes, social groups supporting pro-Russian parties are far more susceptible to disinformation and, in particular, the anti-EU narratives spread by the Kremlin. These findings explain the endorsement of pro-Russian narratives and social attitudes which are indirectly favorable to the Kremlin by political leaders whose electorates harbor anti-Western sympathies. It also sheds light on the nature of Russia’s information opera- tions that seem to be opportunistic rather than ideological in nature, but also limited in scope by the structural conditions in targeted societies. Disinformation, Euroskepticism and pro-Russian Parties in Eastern Europe 5 INTRODUCTION In recent years, accumulating evidence has exposed the Kremlin’s active measures campaign in Europe, which consists of a set of efforts to weaken European democracies. Active measures seek to influence the targeted society in a number of ways: espionage operations to acquire information; information operations to disseminate disinformation as well as spread and amplify information that advances a particular narrative; operations to help pro-Russian political parties that promote Russia’s view- point and influence decision-making (Bergmann and Kenney 2017). While the supply side of Russia’s active measures (the Kremlin’s goals and strategies) is well explored in scholarly literature, the demand side—the characteristics of targeted societies and vulnerable social groups that make them more susceptible to Russia’s active measures—is under- studied. In Eastern Europe, reactionary impulses among certain social groups provide the opportunity for local political movements to embrace the themes intensely promoted by Russian information operations. These themes exploit grievances of social groups who have found themselves on the losing side of the post-Communist transition. For many such groups, “Europeanization” has come to be associated with the erosion of national sovereignty and the destruction of traditional social structures (Popescu and Zamfir 2018, 13). Russia has tried to collaborate with these reactionary movements and foster a Euroskeptic sentiment among their supporters (Popescu and Zamfir 2018, 13). This raises the question: what character- istics of pro-Russian party supporters make them more susceptible to such themes? Almost all of the existing studies on the topic assume that despite differences in their ideologies and political styles, pro-Russian political par- ties attract supporters who share certain characteristics. However, surpris- ingly few studies have focused on analyzing these particular characteristics. The lack of scholarly attention to this question limits our ability to fully un- derstand the effectiveness of Russia’s information operations. This article makes several contributions to existing scholarship. First, using existing studies on the topic and expert evaluations, I compile a list of parties that endorse pro-Russian narratives in Eastern Europe. Second, I analyze the electorates of ten such parties from seven Eastern European countries and find that voters of such parties have significantly more Euro- skeptic attitudes than supporters of mainstream parties that is unrelated to their ideological (right or left) leanings. These findings explain the endorsement of pro-Russian narratives and social attitudes which are indirectly favorable to the Kremlin by po- litical leaders whose electorates harbor anti-Western sympathies. It also sheds light on the nature of Russia’s information operations that seem to be opportunistic rather than ideological in nature, but also limited in scope by structural conditions in targeted societies. Disinformation, Euroskepticism and pro-Russian Parties in Eastern Europe 6 ANTI-EU SENTIMENT AS RUSSIA’S GEOPOLITICAL TOOL Russia deploys information operations as a soft power tool based on disinformation campaigns, propaganda, and subversion (Galeotti 2016; Snegovaya 2015). Information operations are means of conveying specific information that will predispose targets to voluntarily make a decision de- sired by the initiator of the action (Snegovaya 2015, 10). In the Communist period, the Soviet governments often used disinformation strategies to re- inforce people’s existing beliefs and fears and/or to sow divisions among targeted social groups. In the post-Communist period, a decline in traditional forms of ide- ological contestation made the promotion of disinformation a more useful tool than traditional propaganda campaigns (Nye 1990; Sakwa 2012, 581). Russian disinformation manipulates internal domestic vulnerabilities and seeks to amplify existing societal fractures to achieve several related goals. First, the Kremlin seeks to prevent governments and societies from becoming increasingly integrated with the West—a block that it views as actively pursuing regime change in Russia. The aim is to draw these coun- tries back into Moscow’s sphere of influence and bring them to identify more closely with the Kremlin (Popescu and Zamfir 2018, 6). Second, the Kremlin promotes the positions and policies that are more aligned with its foreign policy interests (such as lifting the EU sanctions on Russia) in tar- geted countries. The Eastern European context provides fertile ground for achiev- ing these goals. In recent decades, these countries underwent a colossal transformation in an effort to (re-)integrate themselves into the European economic and political structures. In the run-up to negotiations for EU membership, societies and major political parties converged around pro- EU positions. In the aftermath of accession, the lifting of accession-related constraints allowed parties to adopt more nationalist and culturally conser- vative positions (Vachudova 2008, 862), while societal disillusionment with the experiences of “Europeanization” grew (Krastev and Holmes 2018). This dynamic was exacerbated by the 2008 global financial crisis and its fallout. Subsequently, many social groups in counties of the region came to associate “Europeanization” with the erosion of national sovereignty, mounting pressure from Brussels for increased multiculturalism and immi- gration, and the destruction of traditional social structures through cultural libertarianism and economic globalization. These political trends created a “market” for narratives questioning Westernization, rejecting globaliza- tion, glorifying a mythic past golden age, and longing for the return of exclusive ethnic mythologies. In response, a growing number of political actors exploited these sentiments and challenged the fundamentals of the social contract and the liberal social order. It is not accidental that Russia has attempted to collaborate with these traditionalist conservative political movements, while simultaneously portraying itself as a protector of Chris- tian values and civilization (Popescu and Zamfir 2018). The agendas of these groups are rarely set by the Kremlin; instead, they simply align with Disinformation, Euroskepticism and pro-Russian Parties in Eastern Europe 7 Russian interests in a way that creates large inroads for destabilization ef- forts and only requires a “gentle” nudge to do maximum damage (Popescu and Zamfir 2018, 15). The mix of economic populism and alarmist social conservatism that supporters of such movements embrace offered multiple opportunities for the Kremlin’s information operations. Supporters of such parties are more susceptible to disinformation narratives spread by the Kremlin. Conspiracists and people more susceptible to disinformation tend to be on the “losing side” (politically, economically, and socially) of society; for them, a belief in conspiracies is often therapeutic and helps explain why certain misfortunes have occurred to them. Conspiratorial themes take away the uncomfortably random nature of life and provide a clear pattern of determination (David 2009; Sakwa 2012). Additional social drivers of pro-Russian opinions and discussions in this region are the general feeling of “insecurity” created by the region’s historical experience of being the battleground between the East and the West and the perceived dependence of these countries on great powers and an associated feeling of inferiority. Russian disinformation builds on these sentiments by questioning the advantages of being a member of the EU and/or NATO and promoting anti-Western
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